Monica Greco is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is the author of Illness as a Work of Thought: A Foucauldian Perspective on Psychosomatics (Routledge, 1998) and of articles on vitalism, medical humanities and the sociology of medically unexplained symptoms. For Routledge she has co-edited The Body: A Reader (with Mariam Fraser) and Emotions: A Social Science Reader (with Paul Stenner).

P. StennerDepartment of Psychology
Faculty of Social Sciences
Open University United Kingdom

Paul Stenner is Professor of Social Psychology at the Open University, UK. He is currently interested in process approaches to psychosocial problems, particularly those influenced by A. N. Whitehead. He has published work in numerous fields, including emotions/affectivity, human rights, quality of life, and active ageing. Recent books include Psychology Without Foundations (with Steve Brown, Sage 2009) and Theoretical Psychoiogy: Global Transformations and Challenges (co-edited with John Cromby, Johanna Motzkau, Jeffrey Yen and Ye Hao Sheng, Captus 2011).

Happiness and the Art of Life: Diagnosing the psychopolitics of wellbeing

M. Greco, P. Stenner

Abstract

Building upon the idea of a psychology without foundations and on vitalist approaches to health, the paper presents the concepts of ‘joy’ and of ‘gay science’ as theoretical points of contrast to Seligman’s ‘happiness’ and ‘positive psychology’. Defined by Spinoza and Nietzsche as the feeling of becoming more active in the world, joy emphasises the embodied connection between self and world. By contrast, we propose, a defining characteristic of the contemporary happiness dispositif is precisely the feature of splitting the subject from their world; of treating feelings and desires as purely internal, individual and subjective affairs; and of effectively cutting people off from any of their powers that do not correspond to a limited mode of entrepeneurial subjectivity and practice.

Foucault, M. (1977). The confessions of the flesh. In Power/knowledge: selected interviews and other writings. London: Longman.

Foucault, M. (1987). The use of pleasure: The history of sexuality volume 2. (R. Hurley trans). Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Frey, B. S. and Stutzer, A. (2007). Should national happiness be maximized? Working paper no. 306 of the Institute for empirical research in economics, University of Zurich. Available at http://www.zora.uzh.ch/31973/

Kidd, J. (2008). Mental capital and wellbeing: Making the most of ourselves in the 21st century. Published by the Government Office for Science, available at http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/foresight/docs/mental-capital/sr-c10_mcw.pdf (accessed on 10/10/2013).

Latour, B. (2005) What is given in experience? Boundary 2, 32(1), 223-237.

Knowledge@Wharton (2009) ‘Psychological capital’: How employees personality traits can contribute to the bottom line, available at http://www.wharton.universia.net/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1756&language=english (accessed on 10/10/2013)